Social Strategies Students’ Choices of Language Learning Strategies
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obstacles, and how hard they try to do the strategies it in order to achieve their goals. Therefore, the researcher asked them whether they kept trying and never
gave up when facing obstacles in practicing their speaking ability. Based on the questionnaire result number 17 as can be seen in Appendix 4, 100 of 22 students
did not give up although they faced some obstacles. In the interview, student B said that she never gave up and always forced
herself to keep trying to speak English because she was demanded to be able to speak English perfectly as an ELESP student. Student C also never gave up even
though she faced obstacles. She said that she kept gaining her confidence and strengthening her belief in her speaking ability. It means that student B and
student C were those who still had big willingness to continue doing the strategies even though they had to face many obstacles. Not only having big willingness,
they also tried hard to remove the obstacles and kept doing the strategies in order to improve their speaking ability and achieve their goals. Nevertheless, student A
explained the opposite when she was interviewed. She stated: “I often feel tired, incapable and want to quit practicing my speaking when
there are many obstacles appearing because honestly I doubt my speaking ability. Besides, I can
not resist the laziness and refuse friends’ invitation to play and go hangout together. I also frequently complain about how hard it
is to continue practicing when there are many obstacles facing.”
Anxiety was the other factor that influenced the use of language learning strategies. According to Horwitz Tamijima, anxiety is a factor that can affect
learners’ productive skills such as speaking skill, including the language learning strategies 2001. Anxiety is not only feeling anxious, but it also includes the
feeling of doubtful, fearful and even stressed. Those feelings will appear when PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
45
individuals do not feel confident in their ability, feel embarrassed and feel confused that they make a mistake when performing challenging task. Therefore,
learners have to be able to control their beliefs in order to achieve the expected outcome and prevent the unexpected ones because it makes them can do their task
well to reach their goals. Based on the questionnaire result number 18 as can bee seen in Appendix
4, 100 of 22 students believed that they would be able to achieve their targets and goals although there were many obstacles facing and they had to work hard to
remove those obstacles. It shows that all of the students had high self-confidence that they could achieve their targets or goals. Two students who were interviewed
agreed that they were really confident that they could achieve their goals. In the interview, student B explained that she could keep her belief, so she could control
the negative feelings. Student B said: “I believe that I can speak English fluently because I use English when
being lectured every day. I also believe that the strategies I do for practicing will make me more fluent in speaking English because the most
important thing is keep trying. However, sometimes I feel anxious and fearful when I find many people whose speaking ability is much better
than me in campus. Besides, when I get bad score in Speaking class, I want to cry and move to another study program. Nonetheless, I still can
control my anxiety, fear and stress because what I have chosen was my responsibility. I keep
trying and believing in my ability.” Nevertheless, the interview results that can be seen in Appendix 6 show
that there was one student whose self-confidence was low. She was student A. She agreed to the statement in the questionnaire but explained the opposite when
she was interviewed. She said: “For now, I am not sure that I can speak English fluently someday because
I do not believe in my own ability. I am very afraid that I cannot achieve PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI